How Jane Cay Built Birdsnest Into a Curated Ecommerce Powerhouse

October 2013

JOIN US ON
FACEBOOK

> WORDPRESS
SECURITY:
HOW TO AVOID
BEING HACKED
P13

ALSO:
PINTEREST
MARKETING

> BEHAVIORAL
TARGETING

P27

> SCIENCE OF
WORKING
HARDER
P22

+

COVER STORY:

P17

PREPARE YOUR
ECOMMERCE
SITE FOR THE
HOLIDAYS

GIVING THEM WHAT THEY WANT WITH CURATED ECOMMERCE

JANE CAY

>> THE ORIGINAL AND BEST INTERNET MARKETING MAGAZINE
DESIGNED SPECIFICALLY FOR THE IPAD, KINDLE FIRE, ANDROID AND THE WEB

P31

MEET OUR EXPERT PANEL
Stuart Davidson

a freelance digital marketing
and web design professional from Cambridge, UK. He has
worked with over 50 businesses to establish brands and
maximise online potential. You can find out more about Stuart
on his website, www.thesocialshark.co.uk. He blogs at www.
stuartjdavidson.com

CONTENTS

4

1Expert
commentary on
what are the big plays
that have recently
happened online and
how they affect you.

Read his article on Wordpress Security on PAGE13

Jon Miller leads all aspects of Marketo’s thought

leadership, communications, and content marketing programs.
In 2010, The CMO Institute named Jon Miller a Top 10 CMO for
companies under $250 million revenue. Jon holds a bachelor’s
degree in physics from Harvard College and has an MBA from
the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Read his article on Behavioral Targeting on PAGE 17

Humayun Khan is a Content Crafter at Shopify. He

is also a startup News Contributor for Techvibes, BetaKit and
Techomy. Humayun Khan is the author of The Ultimate Guide to
Business Plans.
Read his article on the Science of Working Smarter on PAGE22

Emily Williams is the Chief Editor of DesignWebKit, a
blog about design dedicated to bloggers, designers, developers,
freelancers and all creative and curious people. DesignWebKit
has useful roundups and how to guides, unique tips and tricks
on all you want to know about design. Share the secret of your
good mood with Emily on Twitter @DesignWebKit
Read her article on Pinterest Marketing on PAGE27

Bill Hazelton is an Experienced online marketer

specializing in PPC search, web analytics, display advertising,
SEO, conversion rate optimization and social media. www.
spirecast.com
Read his article on eCommerce for the Holidays on PAGE31

2

internet marketing magazine
october 2013

8

1Birdsnest
CEO, Jane Cay
talks about curated
eCommerce in an
exclusive interview
with Internet Marketing
Magazine.

13

Know how to
maximise your
WordPress security.

17

1Techniques to
get more email
opens and clicks using
behavioral targeting.

22

1Discover the 8
Stress Hacks for
Entrepreneurs.

27

1Know why
Pinterest
is useful not only
for personal usage,
but also in business
promotion.

31

Simple steps to
prepare your
eCommerce site early
for the Holidays.

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

I

f you haven’t got access to the member’s area please feel free
to do at http://internetmarketingmag.net/become-member/ (it’s
free). This month’s complete audio interview with eCommerce
expert Jane Cay has now been added. It has lots of sections in it that
were not included in the magazine, so be sure to check it out.
A special thanks to those who have left reviews in the apple
platforms as it really helps us out. If you are getting good value from
Internet Marketing Magazine and you can spare 1 minute of your
time to click this link to give us a quick honest review that would be
greatly appreciated (click ‘view in iTunes’ then scroll down and click
‘write a review’, thanks :).
We hope you get great value from Internet Marketing Magazine.
Wishing you the best of success online,
Regards,

Greg Cassar is Australia’s leading Internet Marketing Strategist. With

InternetMarketingDoneForYou.com Greg & his team provide traffic, development
and conversion optimization services for medium to large businesses,
enterprises & eCommerce stores looking for serious growth online. You can
follow Greg’s latest updates by subscribing to Internet Marketing Magazine at
InternetMarketingMag.net for the new members area and the latest issue updates.

october 2013

3

>

INTERNET UPDATE

THE
STATE OF THE INTERNET
In this section of Internet Marketing Magazine our editor Greg Cassar cover’s
the facts and provides expert commentary on what are the big plays that have
recently happened online and how they affect you.
> ANGRY BIRD - PENGUIN 2.1

> THE WORLDS LARGEST MOBILE SITES

In early October Google’s Matt Cutts
announced on Twitter that they
unleashed Penguin 2.1. Mr Cutts
advises that it impacted about 1% of
search queries.

“The world’s 500 largest mobile commerce competitors are growing their mobile
sales by 71% this year to more than $30 billion” reports Internet Retailer. This
is amazing growth that really shows the maturity of the mobile space now
considering that the iPhone was only introduced 6 years ago.
The worldwide m-commerce market is on track to grow a massive 83% to $85
billion this year. The table below shows the top 5 sellers from mobile platforms
for 2013.

It’s still early days to know the exact
effects of this SEO change with
some webmasters reporting major
traffic dropoffs and others reporting
recoveries as a result of the algorithm
change.
To check if your site has been
affected by Penguin 2.1 keep an
eye on your analytics for organic
traffic dropoffs as of the 2nd week of
October.
Moving forwards webmasters need to
change away from the “link building”
SEO mindset of old and focus more on
building quality content that will earn
natural inbound links.

This data was released by Internet Retailer to promote their Mobile 500 Guide.

> CROWD FUNDING FOR BREASTS
Crowd Funding is an ever-growing trend in 2012 and 2013. It’s commonly used
for funding start-ups’, apps, films and music.
Crowd Funding has now moved in a new direction – breast augmentation.
MyFreeImplants.com provides a service that allows the ladies to get new boobs
for free whilst even choosing their own surgeon.
The site reports that contributors “contribute with direct donations of any
amount and receive photos, videos, messages and everlasting gratitude in
exchange”.
As an Internet Architect I often see trends coming before they arrive but this

4

october 2013

is certainly one that we didn’t see on the horizon.

Organic search data from Google will no longer be
available in Google Analytics. Webmasters will now
notice in Google Analytics the keyword search term is
now replaced with the wording of “Not Provided”.

> WHAT IS GOOGLE HUMMINGBIRD?
Google unveiled a recent algorithm update on the eve of
their 15th birthday which is code-named Hummingbird,
It is the biggest change to the engine room of the Google
search engine since early 2010, when Google upgraded
its algorithm to one it called Caffeine.

Whether or not there will be a similar service offered in
the future for men seeking extra confidence is still to be
determined :)

> GOOGLE SEARCHES NOW SECURE… A BIG
LOSS FOR ANALYTICS
Google has made a sweeping change to all search activity
by making searching secure with SSL encryption for all
search activity — except for clicks on ads.
Back in October of 2011 Google began encrypting
searches for anyone who was logged into Google. Now it
has been done for all searches regardless of whether or
not the user is logged into a Google Account.
Google advises its about adding “extra protection” for
searchers, but many industry sources also believe its
because they were getting heat in the media about NSA
spying activity.

The name Hummingbird is reported to have come about
from being “precise and fast.”
Panda, Penguin and other recent updates were
changes to parts of the old algorithm, but not an
entire replacement of the whole like Hummingbird
is. Hummingbird is like a brand new engine, though it
continues to use some of the same parts of the old, like
Panda and Penguin.

Businesses around the world are wondering if the update
will help or hurt their business – only time will tell. IMM
I believe in reality it is a move to increase ad sales
because it is very weird that the keyword data from
organic searches will no longer flow through to Google
Analytics but Paid search keyword data will.
october 2013

5

6

october 2013

> COVER STORY:

EXPERT INTERVIEW

ALL ABOUT
JANE CAY
• Jane Cay is a highly successful eCommerce
entrepreneur in the fashion industry.
• Getting started with her eCommerce store,
Birdsnest, just five years ago, Jane has now built
her store to over 250 brands and her team to over
100 staff.
• Birdsnest was recently awarded Best Customer
Experience in the Online Retail Industry Awards.

“

“

It’s the engagement
that builds brand
advocates that
come back and tell
their friends.

october 2013

7

> COVER STORY:

EXPERT INTERVIEW

JANE CAY
GIVING THEM WHAT THEY WANT
WITH CURATED ECOMMERCE

An Interview by Internet Marketing Strategist Greg Cassar
Can you tell us a bit of your story, and how
you got into this business?
JANE: Like all good stories, it starts with a love
story. I’m the city girl who headed off to the
big smoke to work in IT and then fell in love
with a farmer. I had this great career in the city
working for IBM back when the Internet was
just becoming mainstream.
Then this boy in a big cowboy hat came along.
So, I ended up in regional Australia thinking
that ‘hopefully location is no longer a barrier to
having a career in the online space’.
I bought a retail business in town, which was
a women’s fashion business. I eventually took
that dress shop business online, and it’s been a
very exciting journey from there.

Did it take long to get the momentum that
you were after, as doing a startup can be
difficult?
JANE: Yes. It has been such an organic process.
I think the Charles Darwin philosophy of just
adapting to change is crucially important - it’s
those that are the most adaptable to change
that really thrive.
Initially I did go into a retail business thinking
‘I was going into country town retailing’. I
didn’t have this big vision that we would go

8

october 2013

The Birdsnest Online Shop

online and take on the world. I got into a really
good business and realized, ‘Wow, we’ve got a
great offering and we’re solving these women’s
wardrobe dilemmas in a way that I don’t think
anyone else is solving, and what is the rest of
Australia doing?’
Over in the U.S. and the UK, they were already
shopping online, and I thought ‘we should be
doing it’. This was back in 2006, and people
thought I was nuts. They were just saying “No
one is going to buy jeans online Jane, that’s
just crazy” but I stuck at it with the belief that
it really could work.
We did start to think big, but we started small
and all our steps were baby-steps. But we just
kept thinking, ‘How can we do this better?’
A quick Definition – ‘Curated commerce’
refers to creating unique product lines that

> COVER STORY:
provide customers with a distinct collection
not offered by other online retailers in a
market.

EXPERT INTERVIEW

all these different motivators and that still is
the foundation of our business.
GREG: For anyone who hasn’t seen the site,
you’ll have to go to Birdsnest.com.au to see
the pre-styled outfits and collections (curated
eCommerce). This has benefits for both the
consumer and also for the business because
instead of selling one dress you’re selling
a whole matching outfit, such as the hat,
the shoes, the bag, etc. So it’s a win for the
customer because they really don’t have to
think through the styling decisions, but it’s also
a win for the business because as eCommerce
entrepreneurs and Internet marketers, we want
to get that average sale price up as well.

You are very strong in the Curated
eCommerce space. Can you describe the
effect this has had on your customers and
also your business?
JANE: With the physical retail store I was
fascinated by the buying process of the
women who were coming into the store for
that purchasing decision, and I realized how
powerful a really good retail experience could
be.
So as the analyst, I started mapping all those
motivations. Sometimes it was for a big
occasion such as the school reunion, or the
daughter’s wedding. Other times it was about
her body with things such as “I’ve got hips, I
just want to hide my hips” or, “I’ve got great
legs, let’s show them off.” Sometimes it was
about colours that she felt confident in.
Then we thought ‘how do we take that
intimate and personalized experience that you
have one-on-one with a really knowledgeable
shop assistant to the online environment?’
That was my obsession. We spent two years
designing this site about how you would shop by

What has been the strategy behind the site
ranking strongly with organic SEO?
JANE: I didn’t know what SEO meant when we
launched in 2008. I didn’t really even think
Google was that important initially. The first
iteration of our site was very well designed
for our customers, but we hadn’t focused on
how Google looked at our site at all. We had
so many duplicate pages of dresses and we
learned quickly that we weren’t going to rank
very well.

So, we redesigned – we’re now on our third
major reiteration of the site, but in our second
iteration, we fixed all of that up so that Google
could find just one instance of every product
and category.
october 2013

9

> COVER STORY:

EXPERT INTERVIEW

For a short time we had an SEO agency, but
now we’ve taken it all in-house. We use tools
like SEOmoz to see how we’re going, and we’ve
done a lot of internal training and going to
conferences and trying to get our heads around
it.
‘Relevant’ is a word I got taught early on and
I’ve stuck to it – just building content that’s
relevant to our customers is the most important
thing to me.
We have a huge content team and styling
team now and we write all our own content.
We build quality links when we can. We have
over 250 suppliers, so we work with them to
get them linking directly into us. Also industry
publications such as Internet Marketing
Magazine link to us, and it all helps.

10

october 2013

You have built a strong social media following
with Facebook and Pinterest etc. Are you
finding these platforms successful at driving
sales of particular product lines that you
want to move?
JANE: People might think we’re crazy, but
we haven’t really been very focused on the
commercial outcomes of our social media.
We have been focused on how we build a
community and what that community wants to
talk to us about, and listening to them. It’s a
great way to get feedback on our products with
the things they like, they don’t like.
We have just started tracking the referrals
from Facebook, and then how that translates
commercially, but it’s almost out of interest
rather than being too focused on the
commercial numbers.

> COVER STORY:

EXPERT INTERVIEW

I think if we start to post anything that looks more commercial, we
will get much less response, sharing, and engagement. Ultimately
it’s the engagement that builds brand advocates that come back
and tell their friends.

Any closing thoughts or advice for those interested in
eCommerce, but not yet taken it to that next level?
JANE: I would say that you’ve got to be more than interested in
eCommerce. You’ve got to be really passionate about solving a
problem for your customer in a unique way. I think technology is
just a tool, so if you are interested in eCommerce as a tool, that’s
not the thing that’s at the heart of a business.
You’ve got to work out what is it ultimately that you want to take
to market and whose problem are you solving, and then you can
use this fabulous thing called the Internet and all these great
technologies to solve the problem for that customer in the most
exciting way - and then you’ll have a business on your hands. IMM

Resources mentioned in this article:
1. Birdsnest
2. SEOMoz

october 2013

11

Make Your Website Easy to Read
& Effective on all Mobile Phones

12

october 2013

>

WORDPRESS SECURITY

WORDPRESS SECURITY:
HOW TO AVOID BEING HACKED
By Stuart Davidson

W

ebsite security is serious business.
Knowing how to maximise your WordPress
security can be the difference in losing your
business or ruining your reputation. The rise in
compromised websites has (and in my opinion
will always) increase due to the nature of the
Internet’s popularity and the demand from
consumerism.
Since 2009, the number of WordPress security
hacks has increased over twofold. In 2012, the
number was reported to be over 170,000 sites.

If you work in online marketing, the odds are
that you would have worked on, or will at some
point work on a WordPress site. Thousands of
malware types and infections are active on
the Internet but fortunately, not all apply to
WordPress. What makes WordPress security
vulnerable? Here’s the most common exploits
you will come across to WordPress security:
• Out-of-date software
• Poor servers
• Poor credential management
• Poor system administration
• Lack of technical knowledge
• Cutting corners

Being knowledgeable of the reasons why your
WordPress security may be compromisable is
half the battle. Knowing the typical types of
attack could also be of great benefit. Here is
a breakdown of the most common WordPress
security issues you should be aware of.
Back-doors
A back-door allows an attacker to gain access
to your website via what you would consider
to be abnormal methods (i.e. FTP, WordPress
admin etc). Back-doors are exceptionally
dangerous and if left unchecked, can cause
havoc on your server.
Drive-by downloads
A drive-by download is usually embedded on
your website via some type of script injection.
The point of a drive-by download is often to
download something onto your user’s local
machine. One of the most common downloads
informs the user that their website has been
infected with some sort of virus and that the
user needs to install an anti-virus product to fix
it.
Pharma hacks
A pharma hack is one of the most prevalent
exploits. It is actually categorized as SPAM
(stupidpointless-annoying-messages) and if you
are found to be distributing SPAM, you run the
risk of being flagged by Google with various
alerts to deter visitors, such as “This site may
be compromised”.
Malicious redirects
Quite simply, a malicious redirect sends a user
october 2013

13

>

WORDPRESS SECURITY
to a malicious website. If a visitor is redirected
to a website other than the main one, the website may contain infectious software, advertisements or what might appear to be random or
foreign sites.

Brute force attacks
Brute force attacks occur when someone tries
to gain access to your site by attempting an
enormous number of different username and
password combinations, until the right one
is found. Password guessing is very fast when
used to check all short passwords but for longer
passwords, other methods can still be used to
the same effect.
Zero-day Attacks
A zero-day attack exploits a previously unknown
vulnerability on your site and occurs prior to
awareness of the vulnerability. It is sometimes
difficult for you to prevent this, as these attacks occur before developers have time to
realise and address the vulnerability and thus,
find a secure solution or update to provide you
with.
Armed with this knowledge, here are my top
10 security tips to ensure your WordPress site is
and remains secure:
1. Make contact with your web host
Its reported that 41% of hacks occur as a
result of hosting. You should contact your
web host and ask them what they have put in
place to establish WordPress security on their

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october 2013

servers. Your hosts will be able to delete
any generic accounts, so you should always
know who is accessing your website. Avoid
any unnecessary credentials or access points,
including FTP, wp-admin and SSH. Stay clear
of cheap hosting providers without solid
customer service and high WordPress security
measures in place.
2. Undertake regular backups
Prevention is one thing, but if all else fails
then you should have a backup plan. You
should never rely only on your web host for
your site backups. Some hosts do periodic
backups, but either way it should be standard
practice to routinely backup your whole site
and database in case your WordPress security
is compromised.
3. Default site information
Brute force attacks on WordPress security
are mostly attempting to compromise the
websites administrator panels by exploiting
hosts with default credentials (i.e. “admin”
as a username). If your site’s username is still
admin, you need to change this immediately.
Have very secure passwords, that uses a good
mix of capital and non-capital letters, numbers and characters and is at last 8+ characters long is advised. Try to avoid common
phrases and password variations like stuart123. Instead, use 9St1u3a!rt~? (remember
to make a note in a secure place, as guessing
these types of passwords is next to impossible).
WordPress databases are like the brain for
your entire WordPress site – every single
piece of information is stored in there and
thus, makes it every hacker’s favourite target. The smartest way you can protect your
database and increase the WordPress security
is by changing the database prefix from wp_
to anything else – perhaps something like
wp_st6u3a88r0t.

>
4. Directory hardening
Many web hosts often provide the ability to
browse a site’s directories as a default configuration.
Unfortunately, this also allows a hacker to
see the contents of these directories. Updating your .htaccess file can disable this.
Your “uploads” folder stores all the media
that gets uploaded to your WordPress site.
By default, this folder is also visible to anyone online. Updating your .htaccess file will
prevent online users from viewing this folder
too.
Lastly, updating your file permissions enables
your core files to be secured against various
other attacks.
5. Default WordPress files
You should rename or delete your install.php,
upgrade.php and readme.html files as these
are completely unnecessary after installation and actually serve as WordPress security
vulnerabilities. If you don’t want to delete
these files for any reason, then you can just
rename them.
You should also remove any mentions of
WordPress, so that your not providing hackers with useful information that might lead to
potential exploits. Remove the “Powered by
WordPress” tag, the WordPress version meta
data from your theme and any links back to
WordPress from your website.

WORDPRESS SECURITY

mentions, it is easy for people to know how
best to exploit your WordPress security. Its
essential to update everything as soon as new
versions become available.
7. Security plugins
Using additional security measures can be
effective in preventing your WordPress site
from being hacked. There are a number of
free WordPress security plugins available that
address many of the common security issues
that most WordPress website owners face.
Here is a list of the better security
plugins I have come across:
- Better WP Security
- Bullet Proof Security
- WP Login Security 2
- All In One WP Security & Firewall
- Wordfence
- Sucuri WordPress Security Plugin (paid plugin)
8. Universal registration
If your website is currently set up so that
anyone can register as a user, then this can
be a potential method for hackers to access your website. This option should only be
necessary if you are running a community site
where signing up is encouraged. So if don’t
run this type of website, then you should
prevent anyone from having the opportunity
to register. Simply go to Settings -> General
in your WordPress dashboard.

6. Keep everything up-to-date
Hackers will look for vulnerabilities that they
can exploit in older versions of WordPress,
including outdated versions of WordPress
plugins and themes. Ensure that all of your
WordPress files, plugins, themes etc are always up-to-date to maintain strong levels of
WordPress security.
Consider a situation where a security flaw is
found in a older version of WordPress. If you
don’t keep current with WordPress updates
and don’t remove the unnecessary WordPress

october 2013

15

>

WORDPRESS SECURITY
9. Do your research
Plug-ins and themes are great. They make
life easier and allow those without coding
knowledge or the time needed to build a site
from scratch to have a site ready in a short
space of time. But beware. Many free themes
are potential security risks. And out-of-date
plugins can be good places for hackers to
find holes in your security. Do your research
and make sure only to install plugins that are
tested with the latest version of WordPress
and have solid reviews.

WordPress Security: Conclusion
I am of course just scratching the surface here.
The knowledge and tips above should allow you
to begin optimising your WordPress security.
The aim of my article was not to frighten you,
or point out various vulnerabilities in the WordPress platform. The reality is that any website
can be hacked.

10. Fire-power!
Deploying a web application firewall (WAF) on
your server helps protect your site against
vulnerabilities found in plug-ins, out-of-date
software and zero-day attacks. You should ask
your hosting provider if they offer web ap-

But there are significant measures you can take
to avoid common hacking practices from
threatening your website. If you would like to
find out more about how you can get a website
built securely, then get in touch with Thinking
Forwards. IMM

plication security as a service. If they don’t,
then it may be a good indicator of the overall
level of security they can offer.

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october 2013

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>

BEHAVIORAL TARGETING

GET MORE EMAIL OPENS AND CLICKS
USING BEHAVIORAL TARGETING
By Jon Miller
This gives you solid and very powerful
information to go on. As McKinsey wrote in
‘The Coming Era of On-Demand Marketing’,
“Online behavioral models built with Web
traffic, search behavior, lifestyle data, and
demographics are particularly effective
at identifying prospects not found with
traditional demographic prospecting models.”
Examples of Behavioral Targeting
Some basic examples of behavioral targeting:

Behavioral data can be highly predictive of
future decision-making patterns and road-topurchase activity. A prospect’s browsing and
search activity relates directly to his intent;
his social sharing activity can indicate future
purchase possibilities; and emails opened, links
clicked, and content consumed indicate good
old interest.
The information gleaned by paying attention to
a consumer’s digital behavior is her online body
language. By tracking and interpreting online
body language, you can determine where she
is in her buying journey and what problems she
might be trying to solve. You can even begin to
figure out what interests her, what annoys her,
and what persuades her.

Email:
• Which emails did a consumer open and/or
click on?
• Which emails did she NOT open and/or
click on?
• Which type of offer does she respond to
most often?
• How long ago was her last interaction with
an email — three days, three weeks or
three months?
• Who responds frequently, who rarely
interacts?

“

Knowing who your
customers are is
great, but knowing
how they behave is
even better.

“

K

nowing who your customers are is great, but
knowing how they behave is even better.
Their personas and demographics tell you what
they might be interested in, but their behavior
tells you what they definitely are interested in.

october 2013

17

>

Social
• Did a consumer mention your company on
Twitter?
• Did she navigate to your site from
Facebook?
• Did she share one of your messages?
Website:
• Did a consumer visit your website? If so,
how recently?
• What content did she download or view?
• What keywords were used to navigate to
your site?
• How many pages did she view while there?
Behavioral Targeting Drives Opens, Clicks,
and Engagement
When David Daniels, founder of the Relevancy
Group, was an analyst at Jupiter Research
(acquired by Forrester Research in 2008), he
reported that targeting emails based on Web
click-stream data increased open rates by more
than 50%, and increased conversion rates by
more than 350%.

At Marketo, we found that our lead nurturing
campaigns that use behavioral targeting have
57% higher open rates, 59% better click-to-open
rates, and a whopping 147% higher overall click
rate. Research from Gareth Herschel at Gartner
found that event-triggered campaigns (e.g.
those based on behaviors) performed five times
better than traditional batch campaigns. On
top of that, Forrester Research recently found
that only 17% of companies assessed themselves

18

october 2013

as mature practitioners of behavioral marketing
— but those mature practitioners grew revenue
faster than they planned (53% versus 41%).
And just in case you needed more convincing,
MarketingSherpa research also shows that
triggered emails and segmenting campaigns
based on behaviors are the top tactics to
improve email engagement.

Dumb Lists and Complex Queries
So it’s clear that behavioral targeting is
valuable. But while this engaging level of
targeting is not a new concept, it’s still not
commonly put into practice. Why? Because
traditional email service providers (ESPs) have
not made it easy.
In a perfect world, every interaction that
individual consumers have with your brand
would be collected and stored in behavioral
databases, so you could target and customize
every single message easily. Unfortunately,
many marketers don’t yet live in that world.
According to Forrester, only 45% of marketers
are currently capturing and consolidating
customer behavioral data from multiple
channels into a single database. Data come
from many sources, and customer-facing
systems don’t always talk to each other. Social
data, for example, are sometimes connected;
sometimes not. Website data are almost never
connected to transactional data.

>
Traditional email providers don’t help much
with data aggregation. Sure, they can track
email behaviors and feed their customers
reports on open and click-through rates. But
they lack connection to other behavioral data
and are unable to inform communication
with more personal behavioral cues. These
ESPs work primarily from imported lists and
spreadsheets. We call these “dumb lists,”
for obvious reasons. Anything sophisticated
requires pulling custom lists with complex
queries written by technical experts — they
are made up of API calls, SAS code, and SQL
queries.


answer, etc.
• Website: visit, clicked link, completed
form, referral source, search query, etc.
• Campaign history: campaign membership,
campaign response, campaign success,
etc.
• Custom: purchase history, deposit,
withdrawal, cart abandonment, data
usage, etc.

When marketers are forced to deal with
complicated technical jargon and customized
code, they are at the mercy of IT. This means
acting on behavioral data is challenging for
the average marketer using a traditional ESP.
Less agility means it takes longer to react
to opportunity. Ultimately, it means that
sophisticated behavioral targeting is often not
done because it’s too difficult.
A Smart Database with Smart Lists
That’s why modern, engaging email marketing
needs to be powered with a behavior-smart
database at the core. This database serves
as the system of record for all prospect and
customer interactions within marketing,
sales, and transactional systems. The result:
a single place from which marketers can build
highly targeted campaigns tied to trackable
information about each individual contact.
With a smart database, marketers can easily
target their subscribers using demographic AND
behavioral filters and triggers, such as:
• Demographic: name, location, age,
registration source, household,
preferences, score, custom fields, etc.
• Email history: sent, opened, clicked,
bounced, unsubscribed, etc.
• Social: shared content, referral, poll

“Smart lists” can combine filters to create
specific target segments: subscribers aged 1825 who shared content via social, or customers
with balances above a certain amount who
visited the loans page twice in the last month.
Plus, you can track campaign and response
history for a solid record of how segments have
performed.
This type of email marketing system makes
marketing self-reliant, so that marketers
can easily create and manage sophisticated
behavioral-targeted campaigns on their own,
without having to enlist the help of technical
support. That means they spend less time
modifying spreadsheets and waiting for IT,
and more time building engaging, relevant
campaigns. IMM

october 2013

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october 2013

october 2013

21

>

WORKING SMARTER

THE SCIENCE OF WORKING SMARTER:

8 STRESS HACKS FOR ENTREPRENEURS
By Humayun Khan

“

Using a service that
allows you to schedule
updates for times when you
are not online allows you to
setup posts in batches and
achieve continuity in your
marketing efforts.

october 2013

“

22

>

A

s an entrepreneur,
you’re most likely
used to juggling some of
the following: suppliers,
customers, employees,
product launches, marketing,
finances, growth, operations
and more on a day to day
basis.
And that’s sometimes only
a portion of what’s on your
plate. Add family, kids, rent,
mortgage, car payments,
health, and diet in the mix
and you’ve got a real soup on
your hands.

out of your day?
Newly published research in
the Journal of Environmental
Psychology showed that for
people who work in open
or shared spaces, a highly
personalized workspace
meant lower levels of
emotional exhaustion and
distraction despite the lower
levels of perceived privacy.
In other words making your
space your own will help you
feel less stressed and allow
you to get more done.

So then how do you juggle it
all? Where do you draw the
line?
Recognizing the need
that busy ecommerce
entrepreneurs have for
relaxation in their lives,
we decided to put this post
together to provide easyto-implement stress hacks
proven by science and backed
up by plain old common
sense.
Okay, so now that we’ve got
your attention, here we go:
1. Personalize Your
Workspace
Who would have thought that
adding things like photos of
friends and family, plants,
quotes, comic strips, artwork,
screen savers, personalized
desktop background, and
more could help you get more

WORKING SMARTER

What they found instead
was that multitaskers
were terrible in all three
experiments, worst of all they
found that when frequent
multitaskers attempted
to focus on a single task,
they used their brains less
effectively than non-frequent
multitaskers.
You’d be wise instead to
abide by what one researcher
dubbed the 20-minute rule,
which proposes that instead
of switching tasks from
minute to minute, devote a
20-minute chunk of time to
one task and then switch to
another. That my friends is
beginnings of master the zen
art of uni-tasking.
3. Take Time to Meditate

2. Do One Thing at a Time
Here’s a fact: multitasking
sucks. Don’t believe me?
Well, in 2009 researchers at
Stanford asked 262 college
students to complete three
experiments involving
switching tasks, going through
irrelevant information, and
using their working memory
under the assumption that
multitaskers would outdo the
non-multitaskers.

It’s no secret that there’s
a whole new breed of
entrepreneurs obsessed with
meditation and there’s a lot
of research and evidence that
october 2013

23

>

WORKING SMARTER
supports the fact that those
who meditate are better
equipped to deal with stress.
One in particular study
conducted by scientists at
the University of Washington
and the University of Arizona
recruited 45 human resource
managers for an experiment
looking to gauge the benefits
of meditation in the face of
stress.
They gave a third of them
eight weeks of mindfullnessbased meditation training,
another third eight weeks
of body relaxation training,
and the last third no
training at all and found
that the mindful-meditation
group reported less stress
performing a stressful
multitasking test than the
other groups.
4. Get Enough Sleep
We’ve all heard that we
need at least eight hours of
sleep, but the reality is that
depending on your age that
number can vary between
three and eleven hours.
However, if you go too
long without your right
amount, what you end up
with is a steep decline in
concentration, energy, and
vitality.
One study conducted by
researchers at the University
of Pennsylvania found that
subjects limited to a mere

24

october 2013

4.5 hours of sleep each night
for one week reported feeling
more stressed, angry, sad,
and mentally exhausted.
But when they went back
to resuming normal sleep
patterns, they saw a dramatic
shift improvement in their
mood. So, figure out your
“normal” sleep pattern and
stick to it.

4) and helping you remain
calm regardless of what
comes up. Especially when
you consider that in the
modern workplace, sitting
literally is the new smoking.
See if you can find ways to
build activity into daily tasks
like conducting “walk and
talk” meetings or take the
stairs whenever possible.

5. Shake it Up
Building daily exercise into
your routine can work magic
for dealing with everything
you have on your plate as a
busy small business owner.
According to the the Mayo
Clinic, exercise works
wonders by pumping up your
endorphins to make you
happier, helps you get in
the flow to boost creativity,
improving your sleep (see tip

6. Take a Break from Email
Here’s a “did you know” fact
for you: 23 percent of an
average professional’s day is
spent emailing.
It’s statistic that got
researchers from the
University of California to run
a study where they
cut off 13 employees from
email for a total of five
days and strapped heart

>
monitors to their chest while
simultaneously tracking their
computer use. Not shockingly,
after being cut off from email
they found that employees
were less stressed, focused
on a single task for longer
and cut down multitasking
overall.
7. Plan Ahead
When you run your own
business, chances are your
day to day involves making
decisions left, right, center,
and everywhere in between.
However, researchers have
long observed that we have
a limited pool of cognitive
resources when it comes
to making decisions so it’s
probably best to reserve such
a precious resource on things
that really matter.

It might also be the reason
why CEOs like the late Steve
Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg
decide to wear the same
thing each day, because it’s
one less thing in their life
they needed to worry about.
Stanford researchers

WORKING SMARTER

demonstrated our waning
decision making powers when
students in two groups were
given the task of memorizing
either two-digit or seven-digit
numbers and then asked to
decide between chocolate
cake or a fruit bowl.
Interestingly the students
tasked with memorizing
seven-digits were 50 percent
more likely than the other
group to choose cake over
fruit.
In other words, planning what
you can ahead of time and
leaving yourself less ‘on the
fly’ stuff to worry about will
allow you to make better
decisions in your business.
8. Go Analog More Often
There’s a whole slew of
research demonstrating
that our current pace of
digital consumption can
have us leaning on the edge
of technological addiction,
depression, stress, sleeping
disorders.
And when it comes to social
media, it actually has the
potential to make us more
lonely, jaded and jealous.
Add to that pile the fact that
we’re constantly connected
through our mobile devices
after work hours and it all
makes for a brain that never
fully recuperates from one
day’s worth of work to get
ready for the next. IMM
october 2013

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october 2013

>

PINTEREST

A BRIEF GUIDE TO
PINTEREST MARKETING
By Emily Williams

“

Pinterest is useful
not only for personal
usage, but also quite
effective in business
promotion.

P

interest is no longer the
underdog after coming in
third behind Facebook and
Twitter in Experian Hitwise’s
ranking of top ten social
networks. With more than 100
million visits for the month
of May, Pinterest has become
the talk of the blogosphere
and for good reasons. The
site is less than 3 years old,
having just dropped anchor in
the Web in late 2009. Today,
the site is visited daily by
more than 1 million visitors
who can’t stop pinning their
favourite photos and images
that depict style, recipes,
craft, children, pets, recipes
etc.
Pinterest is useful not only
for personal usage, but also
quite effective in business
promotion. This visual-based
social network drives a lot
of referral traffic and is of a
great value for marketers.
Its members number in the
millions despite being an
invite only website (although
getting in is not very hard)
and the amount of unique
visitors is increasing every
october 2013

27

“

>

PINTEREST
day. So how do we tap into the potential market
that is hiding inside Pinterest?
How Pinterest Works
Let’s look at the inner scheme of Pinterest. It’s a
huge virtual pinboard that allows people to look
through interesting stuff, pin them and and leave
comments below what was pinned. But we have
to look deeper to see the real significance of this
technology. What is Pinterest famous for? The
great selling point of Pinterest that wins people
over are its cool and captivating pictures. We are
visual creatures and we love to look at beautiful
pictures of people, nature, food, scenery, etc.
On Pinterest, we pin what we like to see, and
other people pin what they like to see. The trick
here is to let your visuals get pinned as often as
possible.

Every pin is a link to the source of the image,
usually an external site – in this case, a link to
your site. So every repin of the image can lead
readers in a straight road back to your site. Talk
about a crowd puller. Users who are searching
for data may click on a nice-looking image,
arrive at your website and may be converted
from a simple passerby to the future customer
and hopefully loyal fan. Moreover, if your pins
are eye-catching and worthwhile, they may be
repined by other pinners or even be embedded
on your fans’ sites or blogs.

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october 2013

Making Pinterest Work For You
To gain confidence and loyalty you should neatly
build your following on Pinterest. First of all,
you have to create a good-looking account. It
doesn’t matter if you activate the profile with
your own name or with your company brand.
But remember, people are more inclined to
believe and follow individuals, not so much for
companies, unless they are very popular and
well-known brands.

You can tie your profile to the email which is
used for your Twitter account, so you can quickly
share pins in both social networks. To increase
visibility, on your Profile picture, check ‘Hide
your Pinterest profile from search engines’
and be sure that it’s ‘Off’. This will allow your
page to be indexed in a search. Don’t forget to
add the Pinterest social media button to your
website, blog or portfolio and your Pinterest
signature to your email These two tiny, but
significant gestures will help you in promotion
and to build your fan base.
How To Get Pinned
In preparing your images to be pinned, check out
its quality and overall design. Always remember
that Pinterest doesn’t sell your products or
services, you sell them using Pinterest via their
technology and their social platform. The real
value ofPinterest is in its pictures and shots.
Hence, the appearance of the images that can
link back to you has to be pleasant to the eye

>
and, where possible, remarkable. However,
don’t expect that it’s easy to do, that is don’t
think that you will win over the fans only by
showcasing photos and adding new images of
your products and brand. To receive lots of
repins and shares you have to follow these
simple but effective tips.
1. Creating Unique Boards
Create boards, organize them in a unique way
so they stand out in a crowd of common names
such as “cool stuff” or “things I like”. If the
name of your board is unique, people will be
curious to know what is hidden behind that
crazy, unusual or unexpected board names.
Don’t just brand your digital boards. Pinterest
fans will follow your boards more often if they
feature original content. Establish a separate
board with images that make your followers
smile and laugh or some other kind of shots
that raises their mood at once and make them
return to your pins.

2. Quality Images
Pinterest is a picture-based website, so the
quality of your images is a must! Use only
extremely high quality shots, their size should
be about 600 or 800 pixels wide and 1000
pixels deep. The quality of the photos, images
or artworks is part of your marketing strategy
so take your time to choose them well. It will
be worth your effort in the end. Always keep
an eye on the size of the images: if the size is
too small, pinners can’t share it, but if users
can easily find the same image in another
blog or website at the right size or resolution,
they’ll pin that one, and you will lose out on
the traffic generated from that pin.

PINTEREST

3. Make Your Images Share-Able
Don’t watermark your images. That makes it
exclusive, a property of an organization, and
as a result, people won’t pin your images. It’s
better to not also put any marketing pitches
in there, like the price of your services or
products on pictures or your company logo.
This may backfire, making your images
unpinnable. On Pinterest, you let your product
sell itself by its appearance. Keep everything
else that reeks of corporate marketing out
of the images. Pinterest is not a promotional
website where you share your advertising, it’s
a place where everyone is connected through
the things and stuff viewers find interesting.
At most, you can mark your image with a price
tag and pin it under Gifts which is a category
that caters to this kind of images marketing.

4. Vamp Your QR Code
The Pinterest community loves cool images so
if you can make a cool QR code that is worthy
of being pinned around, the Pinners will spread
the image carrying details to link back to your
organization or to you. Make it beautiful with
stylish designs so readers can take it for an
artwork and repin it over and over again.

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29

>

PINTEREST
5. Detailed Descriptions
If you want your images to be noticed, it
would help to write detailed descriptions.
With the right keywords people will find your
images more quickly and you’ll have more
chances to be noticed, ensuring more traffic
to your website.
6. Reward Your Pinners
If your budget permits, give a prize to the
pinner who gets more shares, likes and
tweets of your discount. In such attractive
way you’ll make people like your brand and
to get to know you better.

Need More Traffic?
Need More Leads?
Need to Reduce Your
Adwords Cost Per Click
& Cost Per Lead?

7. Interact With Your Pinterest Friends
One original pin can bring you traffic for
several weeks or more, compared to a tweet
that on average works its charms for only one
day. When you just start pinning, don’t begin
your Pinterest existence with commercial
messages, get involved with emotional, fun
and eye-catching pins. By repinning viral
stuff you’ll draw the attention and people
will start following and liking you. The best
tactic is to reciprocate and follow them back,
repin their artworks, but add your personal
message to the repinned image.

CLICK HERE

Conclusion
The whole Pinterest Universe is based on the
content that people share. Despite the millions
of images being pinned now, it’s not difficult
to get your photos noticed and repinned. Just
showcase things that might be interesting
and the network’s simple system and userfriendly interface will help drive traffic and
to your page. Remember, people on Pinterest
like looking for creative things and enjoy the
process of finding and discovering new images.
Let’s take advantage of all this and make
Pinterest work for your business. IMM
This article originally appeared on Hongkiat.com

30

october 2013

to touch base with Greg
Cassar and the team at
InternetMarketingDoneForYou.com about
Professional Adwords
Services with a real
focus on ROI for you the
business owner.

>

ECOMMERCE

PREPARING YOUR E-COMMERCE
SITE EARLY FOR THE HOLIDAYS
By Bill Hazelton

D

uring the lazy late summer months, the last
thing you might be thinking about is the
upcoming holiday season. Yet, the notion of
Christmas in the summer time really isn’t that
far off base when it comes to your e-commerce
shop. We all know the holiday shopping season
can quickly turn chaotic so, particularly if
you’re new to the e-commerce game, you
need to start preparing yourself and your site
for holiday shoppers well in advance of the
holidays.
Depending on the size and scope of your
site as well as the time you can dedicate to
the prep work, you might want to consider
starting the preparation in July or August. The
“Back-to-School” rush is usually a good time
to start preparing for the holidays. It might
sound crazy to begin prepping your site for the
holiday season in the middle of summer, but
prepping well in advance is key to success.
The tips that we’re providing below for getting
your e-commerce site ready certainly apply to
the holiday shopping season but they are also
critical to the overall success of your business
website no matter what time of year it is.

for the upcoming holiday season:
Remove All Your Site’s Roadblocks
Online shoppers want what they want when
they want it. They want to get in, find what
they need, make a purchase, and get out.
The more roadblocks and difficulties they
encounter in the shopping path on your site,
the less jolly your holiday season will be. For
starters, make sure that you supply contact
information clearly and concisely either in the
footer on your site or somewhere else where
it is prominently located and easy to find.
There’s nothing more aggravating or suspicious
than a missing telephone number, no email
address and hard to find contact information.
Nothing screams “untrustworthy” more than
hard-to-find contact information. Be sure to
display the hours that your customer service
representative(s) will be available each day as
well. Customers who get frustrated trying to
find contact information and customer support
information won’t stick around long.

The one thing that all e-commerce
entrepreneurs learn very quickly is that
preparing for the holiday season early is the
only safe option.
Being unprepared for the holiday rush can
destroy your credibility and negatively impact
your business for years to come.
Here is a list of our best tips and advice for
e-commerce site owners on preparing early

Setup a Customer Support Plan
If you rely on a customer support team to
service your customers, you need to start
prepping them now as well. Customer support
can make or break a business during the
holidays. Your team needs to be properly
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31

>

ECOMMERCE
trained and knowledgeable about the
inventory you sell. Good customer service
representatives are a valuable asset to have
on your team. Not only do they need to be
trained in basic customer service skills, they
need to be prepared to manage even the most
peculiar customer support scenarios effectively.
Email support questions should be answered
appropriately and within a 24 period during the
holidays and no later than 48 hours in all other
situations. Customer support should have a
protocol to be followed and as the site owner,
you should shop your own store and test your
own support team’s abilities on a regular basis.
Your goal should be to find complaints before
the customer does.
Product Details and Descriptions
Many consumers will not shop online simply
because they can’t adequately view purchase
items well enough. To ensure convenience
for your customers, you need to create
product details and descriptions that provide
enough information that your customers can
comfortably and accurately make a purchase
decision. Consumers want to be able to see
the item for sale (several angles are ideal) and
want to know as much as they can about your
merchandise. At the very least, try to enhance
your product descriptions for all your existing
products by adding more descriptive text (AKA
relevant keywords). You might also consider
adding additional products specifically geared
towards the holiday season.
In addition to the product information you
provide, customers appreciate what others are
saying. Enabling your site to display consumer
reviews, ratings, and product comparisons can
be a valuable tool for consumers when making
purchase decisions. Providing such information
is also valuable to your company because it can
increase your conversion rates, help reduce
the amount of product returns you need to
deal with, and decrease the amount of time

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october 2013

your customer support team needs to deal with
problems.
Be Clear About Holiday Deadlines
As you prepare for the holiday onslaught, be
sure you are VERY clear with your customers
about cut off dates for orders to be purchased,
shipped, and delivered well in time for the
holidays.

• Last minute shoppers shop online
predominantly so be sure to include
specific dates and times about delivery
cut-offs prominently throughout your site,
including your home page and all product
pages.
• Communicate any pre-ordering options
that you might offer for new products.
• Use explicit wording such as “Shipping
Deadlines” or “Shipping Cutoff” rather
than generic descriptions like “Shipping
Info” or “Shipping Details”.
• Clearly indicate any shipping restrictions
or delivery limitations, for example
outside of the continental U.S. (Alaska,
Hawaii) or for international locations.
If different states or countries have
different delivery cutoffs, make this clear.
• Prominently display all available shipping
options and their respective prices:
standard, expedited and overnight/
express.

>
Gift Certificates, Gift Cards and Gift Wrapping
The amount of gift cards being sold each year
is growing steadily. They are an extremely
popular choice for all occasions but especially
around the holidays. When you start promoting
your gift cards, be sure to display them
prominently on the home page and in the
navigation bar of your site, as well in other
strategically placed areas, such as your
shopping cart and email confirmations that
you send your customers. You should provide
the functionality in your shopping cart that
will allow customers to redeem their gift cards
or gift certificates in the checkout process.
Strategic placement of your gift cards can help
increase sales. It can also be an option for the
last minute shoppers who missed out on the
cutoff dates but still need a great gift idea.
Offering gift wrapping
as a “value-added”
service might not be
possible for some
merchants, but for
smaller retailers, a
gift wrapping service
can help differentiate
your offering from
your competitors and build loyalty from your
customer base. Not to mention, gift wrapping
can also provide an incremental source of
revenue.
Setting Up Product Feeds
Because of the ease with which customers can
compare prices online, you should start the
process of setting up product feeds at shopping
comparison engines like Shopzilla,NexTag
and GoogleBase. Consumers actively use
these engines to compare and lock in the
lowest prices available so you’d be advised
to start using them. Setting up product feeds
now should benefit you with the upcoming
holiday sales push but you’ll also benefit
year round from having your products listed

ECOMMERCE

and catalogued in these key shopping site
databases.
Update Your Product Catalog
You should start immediately to update
your product catalog and inventory levels,
if applicable. You should post your product
inventory levels on each product page for
customers to avoid angering them at checkout
time with no inventory, but also to create a
sense of urgency when your inventory counts
are getting low. The last thing you want to
do is build up a customer’s desire with one of
your best selling products only to disappoint
with a “SOLD OUT” sign after they complete
the checkout process. Be on the lookout when
updating your product catalog for cross-selling
and up-selling opportunities where you can
bundle and promote related product items that
your customers will benefit from.
Also consider cross-merchandising your
products with “theme” pages for specific
holidays and promotions. During the holiday
season in particular, you should display the
product in its home category (eg. “skirts”) but
also be able to cross-merchandise products
in various themes or event-related categories
“Gifts for Mom,” “Back to School Sale,” “Hot
Gift Ideas,” etc.
Buying Guides, Bestsellers and Hot Gift Ideas
Most merchants will already know what their
best selling items are and should feature those
items prominently on the home page. You
might also consider developing profiles of
prospective purchase items based on the person
who is receiving the gift that can serve as
buying guides for your customers (eg. “Gifts for
Mom”, “Gifts for Dad”, “Gifts for Kids”, etc.)
You might also develop pricing “buckets” to
make it easier for budget conscious consumers
to easily segment and navigate your product
line (eg. “Gifts for Under $20”, “Gift for Under
$50”, etc.)
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ECOMMERCE
Consider A/B Testing & Landing Page
Optimization
The summer leading up to the holiday season
offers an ideal time to try improving your
conversion rates on your site’s landing pages by
experimenting with different design templates,
creative elements and features of your site.
A/B testing is an optimization methodology that
provides site owners with the ability to compare
and test various elements on their sites to see
how it impacts the conversion rates. The idea
is to collect some data now in the late summer
and fall in time for the holiday season. There
are some very simple and affordable testing
solutions that you can try out immediately.

in no time at all.
Use Creative Promotions to Drive Sales and
Build Loyalty
Try to come up with some creative promotions
for your holiday marketing efforts. Simply
discounting your prices in order to drive traffic
is too short-sighted and can hamstring your
ability to raise prices on a long term basis.
Utilize promotions that will build customer
loyalty and repeat business. Creating urgency
with time-sensitive promotions and “order-by”
dates are also effective.

Google Analytics Content Experiments is a free
website testing and optimization tool that gives
you the ability to improve the performance
of your existing websites and traffic without
spending a dime. You can use Google Analytics
Content Experiments to test and optimize your
site design, improving the conversion rates of
your site and ultimately, increase your sales
and ROI regardless of your experience level,
whether you’re a novice online marketer or a
professional.
For WordPress site owners, there’s a Google
Optimizer Plugin that quickly and easily
integrates the Google Analytics Content
Experiments code into your blog posts and pages
for you. Downloading the plugin and installing
it takes only about 15 minutes and you can be
up and running your first Optimizer experiment

34

Here are some additional holiday promotional
ideas to consider:
• Promote your hot, new product releases
early in the holiday season. You could
even offer your customers the ability to
“pre-order” these new releases to ensure
availability to them.
• Try building co-branded promotions with
key vendors, suppliers and manufacturers,
such as “Nintendo Weekend” or “Burberry
Day”, for example. You might ask your most
important vendors about participating as a
co-op marketing opportunity with advertising
support or product discounts for the limited
time offer.
• Solicit your visitors for holiday promotional
ideas or suggestions that they’d like to see
from your website or company
• Create an exclusive website only offer or
promotional event geared at your most loyal
customers. For example, you could offer a
discount on holiday shipping for purchases
over $100.
Start Leveraging Social Media
If you haven’t already setup a Twitter account
or a Facebook page, you should do it as soon
as possible. While it might be too late at
this point (if you haven’t already established
accounts) to setup, and get immediate impact
in time for the holiday rush, you should go

october 2013

>

ECOMMERCE

through the process of setting up your Facebook and Twitter
accounts anyway so you can start building traction in this arena
for the future. Setting up these accounts is fairly straightforward,
but there’s a process to building a Twitter followingand a
Facebook friends list, which is an art in and of itself.

Social media is an opportunity to build relationships and forge
more meaningful dialogue with existing as well as prospective
customers. It shouldn’t be viewed as a means to shove your
products and services down the throats of your friends and
followers. Businesses that use social media exclusively as a
means to shout from the rooftops promoting their own products
and services are missing the point. Don’t be a shameless carnival
barker with your social media accounts.
The most successful social media marketers use their accounts
to share relevant, helpful information by providing links to other
sites, tips, advice and recommendations, helping to build trust
and authority in their respective niches.

More Tips: One suggestion that you can implement right away
regardless of whether or not you have your own Facebook or
Twitter accounts setup yet is to give your site visitors the ability
to post their product “wish lists” to their Twitter or Facebook
accounts directly from your site. You should also encourage your
customers to post their favorite products or recent purchases
directly to their own Facebook or Twitter accounts. IMM

october 2013

35

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